Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-12-26
OF The REY. TIDE WITT TALMAGE,
Delivered at the Great Tabernacle, in Brook
lyn, Yesterday.
THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOR.
The Lessons Adduced From His Very Humble
Birth.
sDecial TtLeorum 10 he ReoisteT.

and Mrs. Florence Rice-Knox sang three
solos. The thousands of people who pack
ed the church and all the approaches
seemed to join in the great chorus:
"He shaltreign from pole TO pole
With illimitable sway;
He shall reign, when, like scroll,
Yonder heavens have passed away
Rev. II. Dewitt Talmage, ID. D., took
as the subject of his sermon, "The Barn
and Its Surrounding" His text was
taken from Luke IL, l5: "The shepherds
said one to another, let us now go even
unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which
is come to pass" DR.. Talmage said:
One thousand years of the worlds exist,
ence rolled painfully and wearily along,
and no Christ. Two thousand years, and
no Christ. Three thousand years and no
Christ. Four thousand years, and nc
Christ. "Giye us a Christ" had cried
Assyrian and Persian and Chaldean and
Egyptian civilizations, hut the lips OF the
earth and the lips of the sky made no an.
swer. The world had already been atflu,
ent of genius. Among poets had appeared
Homer and Thespis and Aristophanes aud
Sophocles aud Euripides and Alexis rs.
chylus, yet no Christ to he the most poet
ic figure of the centuries. Among histOr
ians had appeared Herodotus and Memo
phon and Thucydides, but no Christ
from whom all history was to date
backward and forward-B. c. and A. ID.
Among conquerOrs CamillUs and Manlius
and Regulus and Xantippus and Hannibal
aud Scipio and Pompey and Cesar, yet no
Christ who was TO be conquerOr Of earth
and heaven.
But the slow century and the slow year
and the slow month and the slow hour at
last arrived. The world has had mathis
or concerts in the morning and vespers in
the evening, but now it is to have II con-
cert at midnight. The black window
shutters of December night were thrown
open, and some of the best singers of u
world where they they all sing stood there,
and putting back the drapery OF cloud
chanted a peace anthem, until all the
echoes of hill and valley applauded and
encored the Hallelujah chorus.
THE WORLDS NEED
At last the world has Christ, and just
the Christ it needs Come, let us 90 into
that Christmas scene as though we had
never before worsbipped at the maGger
Here is Madonna worth looking at.
wonder not that the most frequent name
in all lands and in all Christian centuries
il Mary. And there are Marys in palaces
and Marvs in cabins, and though German
and French, and italian, and Spanish, and
English pronounce It differently, they are
all namesakes OF the one whom We find oI
a bed of straw with her pale face against
the soft cheek of Christ in the night of the
Nativity. All the great paiuters have
tried OH canvas to present Mary
and her child and the incidents
of that most famous night of thc
worlds history. Raphael i'll three
different masterpieces, celebrated them.
TintOrct and Guirlandjo surpassed them
selves in the Alteration OF the Magi. Cor
regio needed to do nothing more than his
Madonna to become immortal The Ma
donna of the Lily, by Leonordo da Ninci,
will kindle the admiration Of all ages
Murillo never won greater triumph by hiF
pencil thau in his presentation of the Holy
Family. But all the galleries of Dresden
are forgotten when ! think of the small
room of that gallery containing the Sistint
Madonna. Yet all OF them were copies o
st. Matthew's Madonna, and Luke's Ma
donna, the inspired Madonna OF the Old
Book, which we had put into our hands
when we were infants and that we hope tO
have under our heads when we die.
Behold, in the first place, that on the
frat night of Christ's life God honored the
brute creation. You cannot get into that
Bethlehem barn without going past The
camels, the mules, the dogs, the oxen
The brutes of that stable heard the first
cry of the infant Lord. Some Of the old
PAINTERS represent the oxen and camelS
kueeling that night before the new born
babe. And we'll might they kneel. Have
You ever thought that Christ came among
other things to alleviate the sufierings oi
the brute creation? Was il not appro-
pirate that He should, during the first few
days and nights of life on earth, be sur
rounded by the dumb beasts whose moan
and plant and believing have for ages
been a prayer to God for the arresting oi
their tortures and the righting Of theil
wrongs? 1t did not merely hap
pen so' that the unintelligen'
creatures of God should have been that
night in close neighbOrhOod. Not kennel
in all the centuries, not birds nest, moi
worn-out horse on tOw.patb, not herd
freezing in the poorly-built cow-peh, not
freight car in summer time bringing the
beeves TO market without water through a
thousand miles Of agony, not surgeon 8
room witnessing the struggle Of fox or rab-
bit or pigeon or dog in the horrors Of
yiviseCtiOn but has an interest in the fact
that Christ WAS born in \ stable surround
ed by brutes He remembers that night,
and the prayer tie heard in tEeir pltliul
moan he will answer in the punishment
OF those who msltFeat the dumb hrutes
They snrely have as much right in this
world as We have.
Brute CREATION.
In the first chapter Of Genesis you may
see that they were placed on the earth be
fore man was, the fish and fowl created
the fifth day, and the quadruped the
morning Of the sixth day, and man moi
until the afternoon OF that day. The
whale, the eagle, the lion, and all the
lesser creatures Of their kind were prede
cessors OF the human family. They have
the world by right of possession. They
have also paid rent for the places they oc
cupied. What an army of defense al
over the land are the faithful watch dogs
and vino Gan tell what the world owes tc
horses, and camel, ana OK Tor transPorta'
tiouF And robbin and lark have by to.
cautatas with which they have filed
orchards and forests, more than paid fol
the few grains they have picked uF
for their sustensuce. When yOu
abuse any creature OF God you strike III
creator, aud you insult the Christ who
though he might have been welcomed
into life by princes, and taken his first in
fantile slumber amid Tyrian plush and
canopied couches, and rippling TaterI
from royal squeducts dripping into basin
of ivory and pearl, chose to be born on th,
level with a cows horn, or q camel,s hoof
or dogs nostril that he might be tn
alleyiation of brutal suffering as we'll q